Isotopic evidence for the use of Caucasian antimony in Late Bronze Age glass making

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dc.contributor.authorDegryse, Patrick
dc.contributor.authorShortland, Andrew J.
dc.contributor.authorDillis, Sarah
dc.contributor.authorvan Ham-Meert, Alicia
dc.contributor.authorVanhaecke, Frank
dc.contributor.authorLeeming, Peter
dc.date.accessioned2021-01-27T15:31:41Z
dc.date.available2021-01-27T15:31:41Z
dc.date.issued2020-06-29
dc.description.abstractAntimony (Sb) is considered a rare material in the archaeological record, found only in unusual circumstances. Nevertheless, antimony minerals were an important resource for several millennia, used in metallurgy and to opacify or decolour glass and glazes. In this way, Sb spread throughout the known world from the Chalcolithic onward. In glassmaking, stibnite was the only available resource that could provide in any measure the very pure Sb evident from trace element analyses of the earliest glass. Sb isotopic analysis has allowed Late Bronze Age Egyptian and Mesopotamian glass vessels and Caucasian Sb metallic beads to be compared to the possible ancient ore sources. The only known matches for the isotopic composition of the glass are stibnite ores from the Racha-Lechkumi district in the Caucasus (present-day Georgia), near the Zopkhito Au–Sb deposits, mined from the 17th century BCE. Conversely, the Sb metal beads represent several isotopic and trace element compositional groups, only one of which matches the Racha-Lechkumi stibnite. Sb extraction for glassmaking was likely unrelated to copper metallurgy, and may have been associated with the mining of precious metals.en_UK
dc.identifier.citationDegryse P, Shortland AJ, Dillis S, et al., (2020) Isotopic evidence for the use of Caucasian antimony in Late Bronze Age glass making. Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 120, August 2020, Article number 105195en_UK
dc.identifier.issn0305-4403
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2020.105195
dc.identifier.urihttp://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/16266
dc.language.isoenen_UK
dc.publisherElsevieren_UK
dc.rightsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/*
dc.subjectAntimonyen_UK
dc.subjectCaucasusen_UK
dc.subjectGlassIsotope ratioen_UK
dc.subjectStibniteen_UK
dc.titleIsotopic evidence for the use of Caucasian antimony in Late Bronze Age glass makingen_UK
dc.typeArticleen_UK

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